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13 September 2012

CIRIO - Passata Rustica crushed tomatoes [By @NLi10]

I'll admit. This is a strange one to be reviewing. Occasionally we get companies ask if they can send us things and if one of us likes the sound of it then we say yes. I heard the phrase Italian Food and couldn't say yes fast enough and got sent this.

On the left we have pizza base topping which I had to leave for another day due to a lack of pizza bases to put it on. On the right we have passata which I have now found out is just crushed tomatoes. This surprised me - I'd figured that it would be more complex than just taking good quality tomatoes and skinning and crushing them, but I'm sure it is as this is very good quality stuff.

So good infact that I decided to break out some of the deluxe pasta that I had (OK - it's not the nice bronze extruded stuff in the yellow packs, but it's good for supermarket own brand!). And then I found out a touch of herbs to add to the mix.

And some of the best sun-dried tomatoes that I've found over the years (they keep for ages too!). I heated up the passata...

and added the pasta and cheese for the veggie option and chopped herta frankfurters for the carnivore option (no Italian deli meats left in the fridge).

It looks pretty good in the Ikea pasta bowls. It tasted a bit different to how I'd thought. The tomato flavour was naturally sweet, and I could have added a few more shakes of the oregano/Schwarz Italian herb mix in and still not overpowered it. It had a lot fresher flavour than I expected for something out of a jar, and I can see why this stuff has a reputation for being a good quality ingredient.

I think I probably didn't do it justice as I couldn't find a recipe that didn't presume I was making the passata too (I know - Google harder) but I do like kitchen experimentation and think that I'll find out the dried chillies and Italian sausage and make a good Arrabbiata next. Yum.

2 comments:

Actually, you can dodge the hassle of making a pizza crust by finding a nice loaf of Italian bread. Slice it lenghth-wise and drizzle a bit of olive oil on. Put the sauce over that, your cheese and favourite toppings, stick it under the grill and buono appetito.